More Legroom Coming, Courtesy of EASA

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said Monday it planned to force airlines to offer more legroom to the economy-class passenger. Physiological data show that passengers are on average now a lot taller and more portly. Airlines that offer the cheapest class of seats with a a pitch, or distance from one seat edge to the matching edge in front, of only 80 centimeters will be expected to do much better. EASA sees seat pitch as a safety issue because tight seat pitch can hamper timely emergency evacuations as well as constricting leg movement. Failure to stretch the legs during long-haul flying is a root cause of DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis). Seat pitch is normally chosen by airlines when they buy their aircraft.... but it can be varied. The EASA ordinance would affect any aircraft flying into Europe, so EASA will be consulting with other regulatory authorities globally. The agency hopes to have a harmonized rule out by mid 2008. EASA sees its authority as being enforceable only for new construction airplanes, but hopes that the new standards would be recognized and de facto adopted on a commercially competitive basis by airlines universally.